Current changes in business conditions may increase interest in environmental scanning and external analysis within the area of corporate strategy. Thus, strategic forecasting is gaining prominence. Strategic forecasting can be defined as the area of business economics that deals with the study and the practical application of methods, theories, models and techniques for long-term analysis of the non-proximate environment of the firm with the purpose of conducting strategic innovation. This paper distinguishes strategic forecasting from other analytical approaches and develops its theoretical basis. Finally, challenges in future theoretical development and implications for business economic theory and practices are elaborated.

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The development of ITC has increased focus onto distance learning programs worldwide. Most universities today offer distance learning programs that are based on the Internet. This development represents a fundamental change in the very logic of being a university. It is no longer enough to rely on professor authority. How can one create a learning situation that enables the university to remain viable? In most western countries, the professors have dominated the learning processes at universities. Since the 50-ties, learning has been about learning-in, memorizing, and cram (Illeris, 2000) where professors most often decide what and when one could learn by providing the context and substance. In this perspective, the student has a role which is close to the one of a passive receiver, and s/he is mainly preoccupied with the problem of generating substance in memory most efficiently. Today, technology challenges our pedagogical reasoning in many ways. However, old pedagogical models often prevail. We see practices where lectures, notes and course information are published on the Internet, where ICT helps professor-student communication, and online based student tests. These attempts are based on old-time educational logic. There are fewer attempts to use ICT according to a different pedagogical perspective than the old professor authoritarian model.
The purpose of this paper is to illuminate some challenges virtual students experience when facing a new ICT-based learning situation. We will try to explore and develop understandings of what it might mean to be a student when learning occurs within a virtual problem based learning landscape. When students are used to the traditional classroom, challenges appear in the twilight zone between two pedagogical practices. How do the students cope with challenges that a new virtual program demands, and what paradoxes and ambiguities appear when old learning processes do not work anymore? The present focus reflects an existential-phenomenological point of departure. This perspective is based on the philosophical writings of Søren Kierkegaard and Martin Heidegger (1927/1996; "Being and Time”), and the successors Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur. The work is also inspired of the father of culturalism – Jerome Bruner (1996) and Wenger’s (1998) community of practice. Thompson (1997) is an inspiration through his initiator of hermeneutical endeavor within consumer research. The consequences of this perspective are that the student and his/her experiences and learning cannot be separated from the student’s existence. As for the subject matter, we cannot separate the student from his/her studying. Learning becomes a profoundly socio-cultural process which has to be studied according to the situation and context in which it appears. It is the heart of this project that the twilight zone between cultural roles might reveal some interesting knowledge about the introduction of ICT and its consequences. The socio-cultural conditions of present society set the context for the hermeneutic analysis of meanings and salient life concerns that learning experiences hold for time-pressured virtual students with high degree of responsibilities. An existential-phenomenological assumption is that individuals would tend to interpret their experiences within present socio-cultural framework. Due to its novel characteristics of the program, however, it is particularly interesting to investigate the role that virtual studying serves in the construction of reality and meaning. Furthermore, as it is assumed that experiences cannot be separated from who one is (being-in-the world), the process of human change during virtual studying is also expected to influence salient types of learning, the student’s work practice, and his/her private practice.

The e-learning area is characterized by a magnitude of different products, systems and approaches. The variations can also be observed in differences in the views and notions of e-learning among business people, researchers and journalists. This article attempts to disentangle the area by using economic and sociological theories, the theories of marketing management and strategy as well as practical experience gained by the author while working with leading edge suppliers of e-learning. On this basis, a distinction between knowledge creation e-learning and knowledge transfer e-learning is outlined. In so doing, the existence of a huge gap between the practice and ideas of leading edge suppliers and several mainstream notions in business and academia is identified. The various views are divided into four different ideal-typical paradigms, each with its own characteristics and limitations. The selection of which paradigm to use in the development of an e-learning strategy may prove crucial for success. Implications for the development of an e-learning strategy in businesses and learning institutions are outlined.

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In this article I will interpret John Dewey’s perspective on reflective thinking as if he were a philosopher of innovation management. From his pragmatist point of departure, the problems involved in knowledge-processes relevant to innovation are analysed and reconceptualised. On the basis of the analysis I attempt to identify some categories of general applicability when understanding, designing, and managing radical innovation processes. These categories are useful to conceptualise and talk about innovation, when knowledge is taken seriously and when managing innovation is also understood as managing the production of new knowledge, that is of making the unjustified justified, and the unknown known.
Keywords: Reflexivity, reflective thought, radical innovation, innovation management, potential innovation, Plato, John Dewey, epistemology, knowledge.

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The concept and phenomenon of trust and its relation to leadership has recently come into focus. What role does trust play? Can trust be created strategically? Questions like these are often raised. How we conceive of and conceptualize trust is not as often discussed. Among those conceptualizations of trust available are those understanding trust as normatively value laden and those attempting to understand trust as normatively neutral. In this article I will attempt to challenge the idea that trust as a concept and phenomenon meaningfully can be understood as symmetrical and normatively neutral. One need not continue the phrase "trust is good," with "control is better," as e.g., Stalin did. Let us stop with "trust is good," and look at the implications of this evaluation. It is my conviction that trust is normally something which is normatively desirable, and that trust is a concept which cannot be exempted from a discussion of value judgment. This is perhaps because trust as a phenomenon is good in itself, even before it becomes good for something else. This point of view has consequences for understanding trust as connected to a systematic form of observation which is more or less directly claimed to be normatively neutral.i Such a view on analyzing trust presupposes that trust and mistrust are symmetrical and not so different. Such a point of view makes it possible for the terminology to maintain its normative neutrality (Luhmann 1979). Understanding trust by defining it as a conception characterized by normative neutrality is in thesystem theoretical universe interconnected with the fundamental premise that functionality and functional self-stabilization are more important than validity.The assumption of neutrality is also interconnected with the idea that functionality is normatively neutral and is not in itself attributed value judgments. Mistrust becomes, in principle, as equally good a form of observation as trust – or more explicitly stated, the question of good becomes irrelevant in the systems theoretical universe – all that is relevant is that both observations claim to be able to reduce complexity. It is this viewpoint on value related neutrality and concept related symmetry I wish to subject to a critical evaluation. At the same time I am interested in showing that one can in fact say something about trust and trust production by exposing some of the conditions which lay at the foundation for declaring trust or mistrust. My argument against the understanding of trust as value neutral is divided into five sections wherein I address different aspects of trust as a concept and phenomenon. In the first section, I address the trust concept’s connection with other related concepts, and show the inherent attribution of value within the concept. In the following section, I show the complexity which arises in and with that trust both can be a precondition for and a product of social processes. The creation of trust can be both the intentionally intended and functionally unintended; for example, trust can be something that is desirable, but can arise without anyone having planned it. In the third section, I argue that there is a difference between having trust in a phenomenon and having trust in one’s knowledge of the same phenomenon. The fourth section addresses the question in relation to the trust phenomena’s strategic flexibility of form for example, the idea that one with leadership tools can consciously bring forth trust. In the conclusion, the question about trust communication is addressed. In this section I argue that trust is positively value-laden, becausesincerity is a functional and pragmatic condition for successful communication which is oriented towards understanding.

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In this articlei I will argue that trust is a fundamental and critical concept because trust is the direct or transcendental constitutive ground of most social phenomena, as well as applicable as an operational method in critical theory. There are two different but overlapping positions on trust I address in this article. One is the standpoint we find in business strategy, that trust is naïve to show, and control or contracts are presumed better. In the strategy game the idealistic good guys seems to lose (Arrow 1974), (Williamson 1975). The other position is the position taken by systems theory where trust is treated as if it was a value-neutral system-internal decision, which presupposes that trust and mistrust are symmetrically interrelated functionally (Luhmann 1979). In his early book Trust and Power, Niklas Luhmann seems to agree with the vision guiding my general argument that there is a need for clear directions and specifications in organisations and systems as to whether trust or distrust is appropriate and rational (Luhmann 1979:93). Yet I challenge these positions described above with an alternative understanding inspired by Jürgen Habermas which can be applied as an operational strategy for analyzing trust in its’ empirical and social distribution, without ignoring the questions of validity in real social settings where trust is actively playing a direct or indirect constitutional role in the foundation of most interactions, organisations, institutions, and societies.